‘Sisters’ open home decor store in Waite Park

WAITE PARK Three women will open a store specializing in repurposed furniture and “upscale home decor” on Thursday. It’s called Salvage Sisters, even though the trio aren’t related.

“We’re sisters in the same passion for this,” said Renee Lelwica, who has operated a similar store in Buffalo called Rustic Nature Designs. “We met in the past two years because they rented space from me and we hit it off. We’re interested in the same thing.”

Lelwica is from St. Cloud. The other partners are Linda Johnson of St. Joseph and Ann McClintok of Clear Lake.

They enjoy reclaiming items found in storage sheds, at flea markets and at estate and garage sales and making them desirable components of home design. Their store will be in the former Treasure Chest building at 115-28th Ave. S. There they plan to use 7,000 square feet of space for a showroom. A majority of it will be filled with their items, but they also plan to have as many as 20 vendors displaying items, too.

“A lot of them will be store owners from other towns,” Lelwica said. “We were pretty selective. They had to go through an interview process to make sure they were right for what we want to try and provide to people.”

Salvage Sisters also will rent items for rustic weddings and events.

The store will open at 10 a.m. Thursday. Regular hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. It will be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.